Juno News - January 27, 2021Ezra Levant on being fined for writing a book about Justin Trudeau
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Summary
A journalist is being charged for writing a book about Justin Trudeau. You may have heard this story right now. The Rebel Commander himself and author of The Libranos, Ezra Levant, posted a fantastic video not that long ago of his interrogation by two investigators with the Commissioner of Canada Elections. It appears that investigation has come to an end and Ezra owes the government $3,000.
Transcript
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We know that Justin Trudeau's government loves to pontificate on the importance of press freedom and free speech.
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They host these big, fancy conferences where they promote the virtues of free speech
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and say that Canada is a beacon of hope on press freedom.
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Well, a journalist is being charged for writing a book about Justin Trudeau.
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The rebel commander himself and author of The Lebranos, Ezra Levant, posted a fantastic video not that long ago
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of his interrogation by two investigators with the Commissioner of Canada Elections.
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It appears that investigation has come to an end and Ezra owes the government $3,000 for the crime of writing a book.
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Ezra, good to talk to you again. Thanks for coming on today.
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So $3,000, this is the going rate apparently for writing a book that criticizes Justin Trudeau during an election.
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Yeah, they say it's a violation of the Canada Elections Act.
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They say that my book, because, and by the way, they spent a lot of time going through this part in their violation notice to me.
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They say that because I compare the liberals to the Sopranos, remember the title of my book was The Libranos.
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So they really go on at length about how that's mean, how that compares the liberals to a corrupt group of lawbreakers.
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Anyways, they say because it's mean, that is tantamount to a campaign ad.
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And because we sold so many books during the election, that's an illegal campaign activity.
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First of all, Section 2 of that same Canada Elections Act specifically exempts books and the promotion of books as long as they're sold at a reasonable price.
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And I think my book was sold for $15, which was probably a little bit high, in fact.
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So we had billboards and lawn signs and videos and Internet ads.
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Even if Section 2 of the Act didn't say so, we have centuries of common law and our chart of rights and our bill of rights, which protects political speech, freedom of the press.
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There were 23 other books published at the same time in the 2019 election about Justin Trudeau.
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The other 23 were either sort of wishy-washy or extremely pro-Trudeau.
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For example, there was a book written by the CBC's Aaron Wary, Total Love Letter to Trudeau.
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So you could say that's a campaign ad for Trudeau, except, of course, it's a book, so it's exempt.
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The police who interrogated me, they were 30-year veterans of the RCMP, they told me.
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They said they were aware of these 23 other books, but mine was the only one they were investigating.
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You know, isn't that proof of what's going on there?
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And they actually said to me, well, you can complain about them.
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But they admitted, I'm the only book they're prosecuting.
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And by the way, I'm the only book that criticized Trudeau.
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Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, given the implications of this charge that you've had leveled against you.
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But was it just the ads that you were charged for, the posters, the signs, the billboards?
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You know, I'd have to look at the exact wording.
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I don't have the violation in front of me, but they specifically mentioned the image.
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I don't know, for those, I mean, The Sopranos, a lot of the kids these days don't know what that is.
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But for people in their 30s and 40s, they might recall that show, The Sopranos.
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They had this promotional poster that showed Tony Soprano and his Soprano family looking a little, very menacing.
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So we, the book cover of The Sopranos was an homage to that.
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It had Trudeau and his henchmen, Bill Morneau was in it, Catherine McKenna.
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I guess you only really got it if you understood the original Sopranos thing.
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So it's probably a bit of a dated reference now.
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But they, so what was on the billboards was exactly what was on the cover.
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The only thing is our ads had three words on them, by the book.
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So, you know, it was just the cover of the book that said, buy the book.
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I'm sorry, I don't have it in front of me, but you can read the violation for yourself.
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We put them on the internet at SaveRebelNews.com.
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You can also see my interrogation at the hands of these officers.
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When I was being interrogated with, and this was a year ago,
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they asked me to go to their high security headquarters in Gatineau, Quebec.
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And then I, but I didn't tell them I was recording them because I knew no one would believe me.
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I didn't know what they were going to say, but I knew it would be so crazy
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that no one would believe me if I didn't film it.
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That's the only time I've ever done that in my life.
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I was nervous that the camera wouldn't work, but it worked great.
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And you can see in that videotape, and we have that on that page, SaveRebelNews.com.
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I asked the cops, I said, I've come all the way to Gatineau, Quebec to meet you.
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I said, I've come here to meet the complaint, but you haven't shown me the complaint yet.
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Can I see the actual complaint that started this whole thing?
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They refused to tell me who the complainant was.
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Yeah, you have a right to face your accuser, except you don't in this proceeding.
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Yeah, and to this day, that was a year ago, remember, so they convicted me now.
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They still haven't shown me the complaint or told me who the complainant is.
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And I know this is just one more level of crazy.
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They didn't actually invite me to their hearing or trial or whatever it was.
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The last interaction I had with them was a year ago.
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So they investigated me, they interrogated me or whatever, and then there was no hearing.
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There was no time to come and present an argument.
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They knew I had a law firm because I had my law firm talk to them about a few things.
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They knew who my lawyer was and how to get in touch with them.
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But they didn't tell either me or my lawyers there was going to be a hearing or a panel.
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Maybe it was just one guy who said he's guilty.
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We weren't even invited to make written submissions.
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We were just told, out of the blue, that we were convicted and fined.
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And we're going to challenge the underlying constitutionality of this law.
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And I think that this, the fact that they're doing, I think it's absurd.
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But the fact they're proceeding nonetheless tells me we're in a new era, Andrew,
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where shame and our cultural memory of being a free place no longer carries weight.
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And it's been a few days since I rang the alarm about this.
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And other than you and one of your colleagues at True North,
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I don't think I've seen any coverage of this in the Canadian media.
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I'm a bit of a troublemaker, a gadfly, some would say.
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So either out of personal distaste for me or political disagreement with me,
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the fancy people, the intellectual class, have decided,
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all right, we're fine with an author being convicted in absentia.
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We're fine with an author being hit with $3,000 in penalties.
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Well, because they know their worldview insulates them from this.
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It used to be back in the era of the Human Rights Commission fights,
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there was a principled response from journalists
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because they understood the broader implications of what was happening.
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because I recall one of the big shortcomings in people that support free speech's ability
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is that it wasn't really happening in a real courtroom.
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This is a hearing that takes place behind closed doors.
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Do you have the ability under this law to fight this in a real court?
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Well, you know, I gave it to our lawyers and I asked them to look at the appeal.
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I think the first appeal, believe it or not, is within Elections Canada.
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A body that has served you so well up until this point in the investigation.
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it's the same lawyers that argued for Rebel News alongside you
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and your lawyers at the Federal Court of Canada to get into the election debates.
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So we've got great free speech lawyers, Aaron Rosenberg, David Elmolet.
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They were with you when you won that free speech battle.
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So I said to them, appeal this finding, but also challenge the underlying law.
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When I was a younger man, let's say 25 years ago,
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I recall when I was just learning about the law and things like that,
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I recall there was a tradition amongst Canadian media companies
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send him to court whenever there was a free speech battle.
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And this one excellent free speech lawyer, and it would be different on different cases,
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So a lawyer would show up in court and say, your honor.
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The consortium, that's what they would call it.
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Because everyone realized they were all in it together.
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So the Global Mail, the Toronto Star, the Toronto Sun, all the newspapers,
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all the TV stations, they'd chip in like a thousand bucks each.
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And together, that would maybe give them 20 grand.
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So they'd send a top gun into court and say, your honor,
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I'm here to represent every single newspaper and TV station, radio station in this country.
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Here's the list of them all, because this is a grave threat to all of us.
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And even though we may not like this guy, we may not know this guy,
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the principle is so large and important, we're here.
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And because there's so many newspapers and TV stations, it's not a money issue.
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I think they have been tamed and trained, and they're submissive now.
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I think they're all on the payroll of Justin Trudeau's media bailout.
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They're all ideologically fused and merged with the government.
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The Canadian Civil Liberties Association is absent without leave.
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The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, they're fighting hard.
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And I think I've just gone through the whole list by mentioning them.
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And it's really weird that we have to spend what will probably be 100 grand fighting this.
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I mean, a normal human being would say, just pay the three grand.
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But you have to, you can't die on the, I mean, you have to fight.
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Because it is going to hamper your ability to write a book in the next election, whenever
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But I do have to ask, because I know that you're fighting the underlying law as well.
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Because that act that exempts advertising of books, specifically, also has a caveat there,
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Which is that that only applies if the book were going to be published, regardless of whether
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And now, personally, I don't think that should matter, right?
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I think if you're in any sort of world of publishing, you don't want to publish something
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So if you're writing a book that has to do with an election, you're going to publish
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It's the same as how, in the media, people hold on to scoops until after weekends or after
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But this is a book that you would have written regardless, isn't it?
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So Section 2 of this law says books are exempt, the promotion of books are exempt if, number
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one, it's sold at a reasonable price, and ours was, and number two, the book would have
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been published whether or not there was an election.
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Because of course there's going to be an election.
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And if there's not going to be an election, well, then we are in grave danger indeed.
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They've delayed elections in the United Kingdom using the COVID emergency as an excuse.
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So it's not even unthinkable that elections would be delayed.
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I was asked by these cops, did you time the release of the book for the election?
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I said, of course, because it's about the election.
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You don't, there were probably, I'm going to guess, 500, maybe more books about Donald
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Trump, probably 500, including sort of small publishers.
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Like the Trump book industry, Trump saved the book industry.
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None of them waited till November the 4th to be published.
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All of them were published pretty much after Labor Day because they wanted to sell books when
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So of course my book was published on the eve of the election.
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Same thing with the other 23 books about Trudeau.
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It would have been really, really weird to publish a book about Trudeau in the election
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And if they're trying to make that against the law, I mean, by the way, if they are saying
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that's against the law, well, then all 24 books are against the law.
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It's normal to publish a book during a campaign.
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The wording of the law is so weird whether or not there's an election.
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Well, if there was no election in Canada, you're darn straight I would publish that book.
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Yeah, and it's more than books we need to be doing at that point.
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Ezra Levant, the Rebel Commander and author of the now-banned book, effectively, The Libranos.
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Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
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Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.